BANGKOK: Despite junta’s struggle to move the economy forward, the Thai factory output fell more than expected in April.
According to the Industry Ministry, the factory output in April fell 5.3 percent from a year earlier, the most for any month since June. A Reuters poll expected a 2 percent drop.
With exports and domestic demand still weak, Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has not regained traction one year after the army took power to end months of political turmoil.
In March, annual output slipped a revised 1.7 percent after February’s rise that ended a 22-month streak of declines.
Output data “remains a worrying sign”, said Thammarat Kittisiripat, economist at TMB Analytics in Bangkok, adding that domestic spending power, investment and exports all remain weak.
Thammarat said output may improve “slightly” in the fourth quarter on more manufacturing exports to the US Every April, Thailand has its Songkran new-year holiday.




